The Battle for Vogen

Wednesday, 18 December 2013

So finally I give you the now built incursion forces for the Adeptus Mechanicus in the Vogen Campaign

On an Imperial Regulation STC landing pad *ahem*

Not a great photo I know, but was taken at like 2 in the morning after watching many episodes of SoA and just wanting to get the miniatures done.

I will take some better pics this weekend :).

Again waiting for some guitar strings to come for some slight cable additions (all Ad Mech stuff needs all the more cables).

On the upside after the Chrissie shenanigans dies down and I settle into my holidays I should have these bad boys done in no time flat!

On a rules related note, myself and 2 of the other guys from the campaign are starting to figure out a sort of fog of war style setup to make the campaign a little less open. I'll be going into further detail once we've confirmed how we'll run it.

Wednesday, 11 December 2013

Skitarii-Magos Reor strode down the boarding ramp of insect
like Mechanicus lander, red light shining from the interior of its hold. As he
reached to bottom he stopped, taking in the haunting silence of the city of
Vogen at dusk. Scanning the immediate area he saw no outright threats and
confirmed the correct coordinates of the proposed HQ site.

He screeched a binaric cant into the ships hold that was
quickly replied to in kind. He stepped off the ramp to allow the maniple of
light combat servitors to drearily walk into the small clearing. He canted
another command to the maniple leader, who then relayed it to his charges.
Within a few moments the servitors jerked out of their stupor and into motion
and started moving with deadly intent, targeting optics and hardmount weapons
surveying the surrounding buildings for any and all threats.

Under the cover of the LCSs, more utilitarian servitors and
menials flowed out of the bowls of the ship to start setting up a makeshift
operations HQ within one of the larger ruins.

Moments after the servitors and menials had cleared out, a
member of the enigmatic Tersus Militia followed by a trio of Pilum class servo
skulls strode down the ramp and approached Reor.

-Compliance-
canted the Tersus operator almost as an afterthought as it loped off into the
ruins with its Pilums in tow.

Reor computed the likelihood of having trouble with the
Tersus operator to be 76.38%, with the possibility of the Operator needing to
be chastised within the 93.83
percentile. He did not relish the thought of that confrontation.

As Reor came back out of his reverie he realised a Tech
Adept was emitting a binary “attention required” chant.

-Report adept- Canted Reor

-Magos, temporary HQ is fully functional, Hardwire defence
servitors are operating within acceptable bounds, Communications with Omnissiah’s Oracle are within acceptable
bounds. Request permission to return to Omnissiah’s
Oracle for preparations of next drop- The adept quickly canted.

-Acceptable. Permission granted-

-Ominissiah be praised- The menial bowed, then made the sign
of the cog with his unaugmented hands and retreated up the boarding ramp.

Moments later the insect like lander was boosting off back
into the void…

Reor again gazed around the clearing, he could easily see
the heat emissions of the LCS’s patrolling the area.

He called up his in-eye chron and noted the Tersus operator
would still be another 978 seconds before being overdue. Realising this, he
decided to look over the short term defences to make sure nothing was amiss….

So after that hideous wall of text I've actually managed to start building my army, obviously there will be mucho conversion work to be done, but hey, that's half the fun!

First off I give you a basic mock up of a LCS (Firewarrior), not particularly exciting, needs cables, parchment and optics added

Pew Pew

I figure servitors match a fire warriors stats well, as I imagine them being slow and not great at CC when they are shooters. To fluff away the reasoning behind them retreating under fire etc would be that the LCS are given larger decision making pathways to allow slightly better independent operations, this also would allow them a measure of self preservation to regroup and attack in larger numbers..

Next up with we have the Pilum class servo skull (Sniper Drone).

KA-PEW!

So this is the sniper drone, nothing really exciting about it, will need to add some more calbles dangling down and possibly some thrusters to allow it to support the extra weight of a sniper rifle.

Last but not least is Skitarii-Magos Reor (Battlesuit Commander). I thought the Thallax are an excellent proxy for a battle suit, they're a decent size, have thrusters all over them and on a 40mm base, bingo I thought!

FACE!

So this guy has some servitor arms in the usual arm slot, with sort of armatures behind those, one with an onager gauntlet (can't see it) and a point one. He still needs a lot of neatening including all the cables as well as a hoot, some torn robes and parchment...

Any way I should be able to get the army build pretty quickly at the 250pt mark, It's like 1 Magos, 7 servitors, 3 Pilums and the Tersus operator to build, so quite manageable!!!

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

So, before we venture into the maelstrom that is our campaign for the city of Vogen, I thought I would take the opportunity to put together a form guide of our fearless generals.

Things that we must remember a few things about the campaign that will be taken into consideration.

We are starting with a very small point total for our army lists (250pts)

We will be playing on 4x4 boards with a bucket load of terrain to represent the city environment.

Corey - Guardians of the Covenant (Dark Angels)I rate my own chances for the campaign as pretty slim. In terms of the group, I am a very average gamer and this is compounded by the fact that I have hardly had a chance to play with my Dark Angels in the last 4 months. Early game will be about consolidating, building up spendable points and beefing up my total model count. My first army will only consist on 9 models so it will be important to get more bodies into the battles as soon as humanly possible. Will also struggle to deal with MCs or high T models. 15-1
Nicky - Adeptus Mechanicus (Tau)Nicky is the best tactical gamer within our group. Known affectionately as the Cheesehound, Nicky has the ability to throw random units together and create a killer list. Early on, Nicky will be brought back to the pack with the limitations in list points making it even, but once he builds that total up, he will quickly become quite dominant... 3-1
Mitch - Dark EldarThe speed and mobility of the DE will be an advantage in these tight city fights and those poison weapons are a massive bonus. Mitch is also a really crafty gamer when it comes to his tactics and can turn games with moves not expected. With access to some deadly combinations available to him, building points quickly will be a massive boost as it will provide his flimsy army with more bodies on the dance floor. 5-1
Matt - OrksEarly game model count will be Matt's advantage here. At 250pts he has the ability to field 30+ models as opposed to my 9. This will be amplified by the fact that the game boards will force everyone closer in. The terrain will give his Orks good cover to moved around unhindered and in force. If he can quickly establish a set of territories using this advantage, Matt could become a hard player to eliminate later in the game. 6-1
Stuart - TyranidsPretty much the same with Matt here for Stuart. Early doors he will be able to field many more models than most of us. On top of this, his ability to field a mumma bear who can spew out extra Termagants will make him tough to compete with early on. Upside, Stuart is such a strong gamer and can make a few mistakes that allow his opponents to pull him apart. 20-1
Daniel - ChaosNick's-I-mean-Daniel's army will be an interesting proposition...mostly due to the fact that it will require him to be ready/committed to playing. Long, long odds.
Justin - Sisters of BattleJustin has built himself a sweet looking army over many painstaking months. Having had his first real test with his army at a recent tournament, Justin will have a better feel for his units. Does have the tendency to put together an army, play it, change it, play it, repeat. 7-1
Rylie - White ScarsBikers in a city setting are either going to be major amounts of win, or major amounts of sadness for Rylie. T5 is a massive bonus and with the sweet little bonuses that the White Scars chapter tactics provide make Rylie's biker army an imposing army to come up against, especially early on. 11-1

Monday, 9 December 2013

Howdy folks! Welcome to the blog for our up coming campaign based on the Battle for Vogen map GW produced a long time ago (when they were still promoting such sweet things).

My name is Corey and I will be contesting this campaign using a Dark Angels army based upon the Successor Chapter, The Guardians of the Covenant. When we decided to run this campaign, it was designed to start off at a really small point total for two reasons:
1. It would better represent the growth from small scale skirmishes in the city setting to all out warfare
2. Many of us had decided to start new armies before the campaign, so it provided use with small, but achievable goals.

Today I am going to share my progress on my first unit. Now I can't stress this next point enough, but I am actually a really terrible painter. Before starting this army, I played Orks and my methodology was to paint as many as possible, as quickly as possible. As such, they looked fairly average.

I decide that seeing as we were going to pour our heart and soul into the campaign for many months, I should apply the same approach to my army. The bonus of the small army point limit is that because I am a slow painter, it gives me an achievable time frame to work with.

The first unit I decided to tackle was a box of Dark Angels Veterans that would function as my tactical marines. I used the Vets because of the robed bodies. I love the look of them and they are iconic to the Guardians of the Covenant.

Last night I spent time working on the torso and legs of these bad boys. The photos below are the end result of about 2 hours work.

The process I followed is set out below:

I undercoated the bodies using a Chaos Black spray substitute (Bunnings people!)

The armoured parts were painted in a three step process:

Leadbelcher Base

Nuln Oil Wash

Ironbreaker dry brush

The robes required a four step process:

1-1 mixture of Rhinox Hide & Wazdakka Red, with small amounts of Sotek Green and Evil Sunz Scarlet added for a purple hue.

Lighten the mixture with more Evil Sunz Scarlet and brush over lightly

A copious amount of Carroburg Crimson wash was applied

Add more ESS to the mixture and use to dry brush the raised sections of the robes for highlights.

Pretty simple and easy, but I would say over all, it is a very effective paint job thus far. Looking forward to seeing these guys contesting the city landscape against the might of the other armies.

The Adeptus Soroitas try to hold onto the little holy ground left within the city.

The roar of bike engines and the tribal war cries of the White Scars fill the night.

The ever enigmatic Adeptus Mechanicus searches day and night for some unknown treasure.

The anguished screams as the depraved Dark Eldar capture yet another victim.

The constant corruption of Chaos has spread unchecked through the confines of this now damned city...

Oh yes, war eternal has come to Vogen!

After all that crap. Welcome to the Battle of Vogen. My self and my gaming group are starting up a campaign to help ease us into new armies. It will be an escalation league sort of thing, starting off with small manageable armies and point limits and eventually soaring into what we've all come to expect.

Also to make things more interesting we will be using an amalgamation of Codex: Cityfight and Cities of Death Rules to add a little bit of flair to our games. With the added benefit of using the awesomeness that is the old GW map of Vogen and its accompanied rules for certain areas which will hopefully ad some flavour to our battles...

Yes GW did love us once...

I will attempt to get our rules up later on, and in no time pictures will start appearing of our myriad group members work coming up...